December 8, 2015
Delaware
Delaware State News
Caesar Rodney’s Lykens to retire from school district
Caesar Rodney School District Assistant Superintendent Dr. Jeffrey “Scott” Lykens recently announced he will retire effective Jan. 1. Dr. Lykens will begin working full time for the University of Delaware where he will be developing the university’s southern program at Delaware Technical and Community College’s Owens Campus and also teaching classes in January.
Cape Gazette
Cape officials, legislators meet on school start times
As the Cape Henlopen school board heads into a Dec. 10 meeting on start times and double bus runs, they now have some historical background on the process.
Coastal Point
Sussex County high-schoolers to award $10,000 in grants
Who should serve on a nonprofit board? Typically, high-ranking folks in business, arts, medicine or education are responsible for bestowing thousands of dollars in grant money. But teenagers are the face of the Youth Philanthropy Board (YPB) for Sussex County. This year, Delaware Community Foundation entrusted 18 students with the power to award $10,000 to qualified nonprofit organizations that serve Sussex County residents.
State of Delaware
Zip Code Wilmington announces all members of initial graduating class obtained employment opportunities
Press release
Zip Code Wilmington, a coding bootcamp providing training in advanced computer programming techniques, announced today that all 16 members of its initial graduate class have secured offers of full-time employment, or a paid apprenticeship, that they will enter upon completion of the course, which finished on Friday. Students, who before entering the program were averaging a salary of under $25,000, will be paid an average of nearly $55,000 per year in their new jobs.
State Auditor R. Thomas Wagner releases inspection report on Delaware Department of Education travel expenses
Press release
State Auditor R. Thomas Wagner, Jr. is pleased to issue a clean inspection report regarding the Department of Education’s (DOE) travel expenses. During our review, we covered various aspects of travel and found their internal controls to be in good condition. Auditor Wagner commends DOE on their prompt attention to our requests and sound internal controls. They consistently got it right with maintaining support to demonstrate fiscal accountability.
The News Journal
Study program in China for students expands
A program that sends Delaware high school students to China to learn firsthand about the culture, language and science and engineering sector has been extended and expanded, thanks to grants from Chinese businesses. It is the latest in the state’s push to teach more students foreign languages and better prepare them for internationally competitive jobs.
WDEL
Red Clay parents raise questions about Wilmington redistricting plan
Residents in Red Clay expressed frustration over the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission’s (WEIC) plan to redistrict city children into the Red Clay Consolidated School District. The commission is in the final weeks of preparation before it presents its redistricting plan to the State Board of Education later this month.
National
Education Week
Is ESSA the ESEA Reauthorization Bill Arne Duncan was hoping for?
So you’ve probably heard by now the bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act seeks to rein in future secretaries of education. And it would allow states to chart their own course when it comes to teacher evaluation and school turnarounds, to name a couple of policies closely associated with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and company.
NPR
Google hit with a student privacy complaint
Google products are growing as ubiquitous in classrooms as dry-erase markers. The most recent numbers show that more than half of classroom computers purchased for US schools are low-cost Chromebooks. But a nonprofit advocacy group called the Electronic Frontier Foundation says there is a hidden cost: data mining that potentially compromises students’ privacy.
The Hechinger Report
Should college tuition be free or paid on a sliding scale? Just ask preschool advocates
A fight between Democratic presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton over how to make college affordable bears a striking resemblance to an old debate on the other end of the education pipeline: Should publicly funded preschool be “universal” or targeted only to the neediest kids?
The Seventy Four
An Ed Commissioner’s Confession: How I tried (and failed) to close the worst school in Tennessee
Kevin Huffman served as Tennessee’s education commissioner from 2011-2015, and in this essay outlines problems he experienced while overseeing the Tennessee Virtual Academy, operated by K12 Inc.
The Washington Post
Common Core math requires students to justify every answer. Does that make sense?
Blog by Valerie Strauss
Common Core math has sparked a great deal of contention across the country in the past few years. It has its supporters, those who say that it teaches students to better understand mathematical processes. They also so that many problems parents cite with Common Core math stem not from the standards themselves but from poor teacher training. Critics, though, say the standards throw out proven computational techniques in favor of overly complex methods and wind up confusing students.